Cryptography in Computer Networks: A Comprehensive Guide

1. Chapter 11: Cryptography Guide to Computer Network Security

2. The word cryptography, describing the art of secret communication, comes from Greek meaning “secret writing.” Cryptography has growth in tandem with technology and its importance has also similarly grown. Just as in its early days, good cryptographic prowess still wins wars. • A cryptographic system consists of four essential components: • Plaintext – the original message to be sent. • Cryptographic system (cryptosystem) or a cipher – consisting of mathematical encryption and decryption algorithms. • Ciphertext – the result of applying an encryption algorithm to the original message before it is sent to the recipient. • Key – a string of bits used by the two mathematical algorithms in encrypting and decrypting processes. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

3. Cryptography guarantees basic security services authorization, authentication, integrity, confidentiality, and non-repudiation in all communications and data exchanges in the new information society. • These guarantees are achieved as follows: • Confidentiality - through encryption • Authentication - through digital signatures and digital certificates • Integrity - throughgenerating a digital signature with a public key and obtain the message digest. Then hashing the message to obtain a second digest. If the digests are identical, the message is authentic and the signer’s identity is proven. • Non-repudiation - through digital signatures of a hashed message then encrypting the result with the private key of the sender, thus binding the digital signature to the message being sent • Non-replay – through encryption, hashing, and digital signature Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

4. Encryption Types • Key-based encryption algorithm can either be symmetric, also commonly known as conventional encryption, or asymmetric, also known as public key encryption. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

5. Symmetric Encryption • Symmetric encryption or secret key encryption uses a common key and the same cryptographic algorithm to scramble and unscramble the message as shown in Figure 10.1 and Figure 10.2. • The transmitted final ciphertext stream is usually a chained combination of blocks of the plaintext, the secret key, and the ciphertext. • The security of the transmitted data depends on the assumption that eavesdroppers and cryptanalysts with no knowledge of the key are unable to read the message Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

6. Symmetric Encryption Algorithms • The most widely used symmetric encryption method in the United States is the block ciphers Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES). • Triple DES developed from the original and now cracked DES uses a 64-bit key consisting of 56 effective key bits and 8 parity bits. • Others include: • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), which is expected to replace DES. AES is Advanced Encryption Standard. • The group: IDEA (International Data Encryption Algorithm), Blowfish, Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4), RC5, and CAST-128. See Table 10.2 for symmetric key algorithms. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

7. Problems with Symmetric Encryption • Symmetric encryption, although fast, suffers from several problems in the modern digital communication environment including: • The biggest problem - that of a single key that must be shared in pairs of each sender and receiver. In a distributed environment with large numbers of combination pairs involved in many-to-one communication topology, it is difficult for the one recipient to keep so many keys in order to support all communication. • The size of the communication space presents problems. Because of the massive potential number of individuals who can carry on communication in a many-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many topologies supported by the Internet for example, the secret-key cryptography, if strictly used, requires billions of secret keys pairs to be created, shared, and stored. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

8. Additional problems include: • The integrity of data can be compromised because the receiver cannot verify that the message has not been altered before receipt. • It is possible for the sender to repudiate the message because there are no mechanisms for the receiver to make sure that the message has been sent by the claimed sender. • The method does not give a way to ensure secrecy even if the encryption process is compromised. • The secret key may not be changed frequently enough to ensure confidentiality. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

9. Public Key Encryption • Public key encryption, commonly known asymmetric encryption, uses two different keys, a public key known by all and a private key known by only the sender and the receiver. • Both the sender and the receiver own a pair of keys, one public and the other a closely guarded private one. To encrypt a message from sender A to receiver B, as shown in figure 10.4, both A and B must create their own pairs of keys. Then A and B publicize their public keys – anybody can acquire them. When A is to send a message M to B, A uses B’s public key to encrypt M. On receipt of M, B then uses his or her private key to decrypt the message M. As long as only B, the recipient, has access to the private key, then A, the sender, is assured that only B, the recipient, can decrypt the message. • This ensures data confidentiality. • Data integrity is also ensured because for data to be modified by an attacker it requires the attacker to have B’s, the recipient’s private key. Data confidentiality and integrity in public key encryption is also guaranteed in Figure 10.4. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

10. Public Key Encryption Algorithms • Various algorithms exist for public key encryption including RSA, DSA, PGP, and El Gamal. See table 10.3 for more. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

11. Problems with Public Key Encryption • Although public key encryption seems to have solved the major chronic encryption problems of key exchange and message repudiation, it still has its own problems. • The biggest problem for public key cryptographic scheme is speed. Public key algorithms are extremely slow compared to symmetric algorithms. This is because public key calculations take longer than symmetric key calculations since they involve the use of exponentiation of very large numbers which in turn take longer to compute. For example, the fastest public key cryptographic algorithm such as RSA is still far slower than any typical symmetric algorithm. This makes these algorithms and the public key scheme less desirable for use in cases of long messages. • Public key encryption algorithms have a potential to suffer from the man-in-the-middle attack. The man-in-the-middle attack is a well known attack, especially in the network community where an attacker sniffs packets off a communication channel, modifies them, and inserts them back on to the channel. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

12. Public Key Encryption Services • Public key encryption scheme offers the following services: • Secrecy which makes it extremely difficult for an intruder who is able to intercept the ciphertext to be able to determine its corresponding plaintext. See Figure 10.4. • Authenticity which makes it possible for the recipient to validate the source of a message. See Figure 10.4. • Integrity which makes it possible to ensure that the message sent cannot be modified in any way during transmission. See Figure 10.5. • Non-repudiation which makes it possible to ensure that the sender of the message cannot later turn around and disown the transmitted message. See Figure 10.5. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

13. Enhancing Security: Combining Symmetric and Public Key Encryptions • To address these concerns and preserve both efficiency and privacy of the communication channel, and increase the performance of the system, a hybrid crypto system that uses the best of both and at the same time mitigating the worst in each system is widely used. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

14. Key Management: Generation, Transportation, and Distribution • The Key Exchange Problem • Although symmetric encryption is commonly used due to its historical position in the cryptography and its speed, it suffers from a serious problem of how to safely and secretly deliver a secret key from the sender to the recipient. This problem forms the basis for the key exchange problem. • The key exchange problem involves: • ensuring that keys are exchanged so that the sender and receiver can perform encryption and decryption, • ensuring that an eavesdropper or outside party cannot break the code, • ensuring the receiver that a message was encrypted by the sender. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

15. Key Distribution Centers (KDCs) • A Key Distribution Center (KDC) is a single, trusted network entity with which all network communicating elements must establish ashared secret key. It requires all communicating elements to have a shared secret key with which they can communicate with the KDC confidentially • This requirement still presents a problem of distributing this shared key. • The KDC does not create or generate keys for the communicating elements; it only stores and distributes keys. The creation of keys must be done somewhere else. • Diffie-Halmann is the commonly used algorithm to create secret keys and it provides the way to distribute these keys between the two communicating parties. But since the Diffie-Halmann exchange suffers from the man-in-the middle attacks, it is best used with a public key encryption algorithm to ensure authentication and integrity. • Since all network communicating elements confidentially share their secret keys with the KDC, it distributes these keys secretly to the corresponding partners in the communication upon request. • Any network element that wants to communicate with any other element in the network using symmetric encryption schemes uses the KDC to obtain the shared keys  needed for that communication. Figure 10.7 shows the working of the KDC. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

16. The KDC has several disadvantages including the following: • The two network communicating elements must belong to the same KDC. • Security becomes a problem because a central authority having access to keys is vulnerable to penetration. Because of the concentration of trust, a single security breach on the KDC would compromise the entire system. • In large networks that handle all communication topologies, the KDC then becomes a bottleneck since each pair of users needing a key must access a central node at least once. Also failure of the central authority could disrupt the key distribution system. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

17. Public Key Management • For the distribution of public keys, there were several solutions including: • Public announcements where any user can broadcast their public keys or send them to selected individuals • Public directory which is maintained by a trusted authority. The directory is usually dynamic to accommodate additions and deletions • Certificate Authority (CA) to distribute certificates to each communicating element. Each communicating element in a network or system communicates securely with the CA to register its public key with the CA. Since public keys are already in public arena, the registration may be done using a variety of techniques including the postal service. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

18. Certificate Authority (CA) • The CA certifies the public key belonging to a particular entity like a person or a server in a network. The certified public key, if one can safely trust the CA that certifiedthe key, can then be used with confidence. • Certifying a key by the CA actually binds that key to a particular network communicating element which validates that element. In a wide area network such as the Internet, CAs are equivalent to the digital world's passport offices because they issue digital certificates and validate the holder's identity and authority. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security

19. A CA has the following roles: • It authenticates a communicating element to the other communicating parties that that element is what it says it is. However, one can trust the identify associated with a public key only to the extent that one can trust a CA and its identity verification techniques.  • Once the CA verifies the identity of the entity, the CA creates a digital certificate that binds the public key of the element to the identity. The certificate contains the public key and other identifying information about the owner of the public key (for example, a human name or an IP address). The certificate is digitally signed by the CA. Kizza - Guide to Computer Network Security